Sorry guys but I agree with the earlier post-ers. The new TUI Fly are gonna be overcrewed on the Boeing, its only the Airbus fleet that has lean crew, and only because the Airbuses are (almost definitely) going so they don't wanna pay for type conversions. The low-cost part of Thomsonfly, well, I think its days are probably numbered. In which case there will be a huge surplus of qualified, type rated pilots for Thomsonfly to choose from, and the rest may well be made redundant.
The unpaid leave last winter was cancelled due to the constraints of merging the two operators by the 1st May 2008. There were a lot of training courses and so on required by the CAA and these had to be completed in the "quiet" winter period. It was for that reason that unpaid leave was not offered - although to be honest it could have been offered, as the rosters have been very quiet. It was really just for logistics - if people are on leave they cannot do their courses, if they cannot do their courses then the CAA won't give the new paperwork for the new company AOC.